Enigma - Robert Harris

Enigma is the story of about 3 months in the life of a codebreaker, Tom Jericho, in Bletchley Park during the war. The book starts at the end of those three months, mainly the last week and there is a series of flashbacks to fill in the gaps for the reader. I have to say, really not a fan of flash backs. If you need to use more than two flashbacks maybe you should have placed the start of your book earlier as far as I’m concerned. I just feel they interrupt the flow too much.

Fear not however, the plot is packed actually. Tom has been an incredibly busy bee in three months. In the course of three months he managed to meet a girl, go to four dates with her, sleep with her twice, get dumped, mope, have a nervous breakdown, be sent back to Cambridge to recover, return and so on. You may now be getting pissed off because you think I gave away the plot? How wrong you are, I just told you chapter one. Seriously. In other words this book is completely packed.

I like Tom. Tom is, well quite damaged, but nice. He is brilliant, which means he has no common sense at all and the fact that he makes it from day to day is simply proof of how civilised society is a nice place to be if you are a mathematical genius. You just can’t help but really feel for poor Tom. He just gets in the middle of things and faces them with such stoic bravery. It’s very lucky that he has Hester for a sidekick, seeing as she is actually capable of not acting suspicious for two seconds and keeping calm as opposed to him. Hester is a force of nature and without her Tom Jericho, clever as he might be, he wouldn’t get very far.

In terms of plot, the twists are great. you spend your time suspecting one person, then you realise you were blind and then Robert Harris tells you’ve missed the woods for the trees. I love it when that happens. You also get to read a bit about code breaking during the second world war and I found that fascinating. All in all I really enjoyed this book,I strongly recommend it if you can stand flash backs. They do stop by page 175 so if you grin and bear it for the beginning you’re in for a treat!

Next up: In Cold Blood

Enjoyed it: Yes!

Read again: Of course, I’ll get to skip the flashbacks!


270 days remaining - 20 books down, 1 unfinished, 80 left.

A Certain Smile - Francoise Sagan

So I picked this up because I loved Bonjour Tristesse  so much. I thought it was going to have the same refreshing voice, the easy going pace, the well thought out characters of her first novel. It didn’t. It was not good. Dominique was very annoying. Don’t get me wrong, she shares so many great qualities with Cecile like her self absorption, tendency for the dramatic, debatable morality. And yet she is so dull. I just didn’t connect with her at all, I didn’t care if her heart broke, or if she was happy, or ill. I just didn’t care. Something about her made me completely indifferent to her.

So the story is: Girl loves boy, boy introduces her to his uncle, girl falls for said married uncle, uncle and girl have affair. Too bad the girl is as interesting as baked beans.

And as for the uncle: Let me put it out there- he is a creep. There is nothing romantic about him. He is a creep and a boring creep at that!

Over and out!

Next up: Enigma!!! So put your codebreaking hats on!

Enjoyed it: No.

Read again: Absolutely not.

275 days remaining - 19 books down, 1 unfinished,  81 left.

Bonjour Tristesse - Francoise Sagan

This is the story of Cécile, a 17 year-old girl living in the 1950’s, spending her summer holiday with her father in the company of one of his many mistresses. As a teenage girl she is described to idolise her father and his chosen life style, lack the direction of solid parenting that was absent in her life and despise anything that tries to unsettle the fragile balance of her life. In fact she is very a much a teenager, trapped between being a child and being an adult and she evidently resents that. Especially when the latest conquest of his father is here to stay, with Anne becoming his fiancee and taking firm control of Cecile’s life in the same sense as a mother figure would.

This very short novel was incredibly well written, honest and very direct in terms of its characters and situations. You can’t help but like Cecile, not because she is a nice human being (she’s not.) but because she is honest and does exactly what you’d expect her to do. With Cecile, what you see is pretty much what you get. She is a great character and her mental voice is very refreshing.

As for the plot, it had a tendency for the dramatic but it was written by a teenager, reflecting a teenager’s view. It was very enjoyable! Highly recommended!

Enjoyed it: Very Much

Read again: Absolutely!

275 days remaining - 18 books down, 1 unfinished,  82 left.

The Death Instinct - Jed Rubenfeld

This book not exactly a sequel to The Interpretation of Murder but it does use the same protagonist and in a sense it gives us the “what Stratham Younger did next” vibe. Set in the 1920’s in New York, it follows two lines: the life of a police detective who witnessed the 1920’s terrorist attack on Wall Street and Stratham Younger, trying to unravel a plot against a young radiochemist. The plot was great, if you ignore the ridiculous parts of it and the shaky science bits, it was fun. But something happened to the book. I’m going to guess it happened at the printers, they accidentaly added to the book another book, called “Memoirs from WWI”. If that’s not what happened then I can’t explain why he spent easily 150 pages telling us, in  a very preachy manner, about the horrors of the First World War. It didn’t add to the plot, it didn’t add to the experience and frankly it was tedious.

The other thing that happened to that book was Stratham Younger turned from a fun nice person to an arrogant jerk that deserves to be run over by a train. I hated everything about him. The worst part was that it wasn’t as if Rubenfeld took his character and then imagined the emotionally scarred version of it and tried to reproduce it. He took his character, shredded it, started again and gave him the same name. Seriously.

The other thing that had bothered me about Jed Rubenfeld before is the outlandish plots. There are parts where his story is simply unbelievable. In a way, he writes such hard to believe story-lines that when he brings out the outlandish spin you are unsurprised because there is nothing that can surprise you anymore.

The nice treat in his books is always the Freud cameos that appear. Now, I know most of Freudian psychology has been disproved but he still looks very cool in a historical novel! That was really a treat. In terms of other characters, Colette was possibly the most confusing character I’ve read: so liberal and yet so sexist at the same time! It was all a bit confused... The only decent character was Detective Littlemore (who I imagine to look like Paul Giammati a la The Illusionist). He was a well written, well thought out character. He is the only character I truly enjoyed reading about!


Enjoyed it: So so.

Read again: Not really.

275 days remaining - 17 books down, 1 unfinished,  83 left.

Life in the United Kingdom - The Home Office

Let me tell you a little story: There once was a girl who lived in the UK for years and years. She never needed any resident’s permits or visas because she was an EU citizen. Then one day she thought: “Why don’t I become British? I must be eligible!” And lo an behold, she was!!! So she started reading about the process of naturalisation and finding the forms and documents she would need. And then suddenly she stumbles across something called a “citizenship test”. “What is that?” She asks herself. “ A test?” So she reads a bit more and finds out that there is indeed a test that you have to sit to be able to apply for citizenship.

And of course, where there is a test, there is a book to study from... Enter Life in the United Kingdom: A journey through citizenship. (I swear I’m not making it up, that’s what it’s called...) The content was useful. I won’t go as far as to describe it as interesting but useful is a fair enough description. The language, as was expected, was very simple and this at least gave it some entertainment value when you reached parts like the Holidays and Festivals section where Santa was described as an old man coming in the house at night, when the children are asleep to leave things and drink alcohol. That was, aside from creepy, hilarious. Aside from sections like that, because the language was very simple some more complex concepts were overly simplified and that was less funny. In terms of information load there were useful bits and bits that even though they come up in tests (and in the majority they did in mine.... sigh...) are completely pointless. Why is it important to know how many independent schools there are in the UK? How will that help me as a future citizen of the UK? Pointless.

The other issue was the fact that there were no sample questions in the book. If you are like me and in this case you are just studying for the test rather than for the fun of it (in which case: What is wrong with you???) then the sample questions would at least make you focus on the appropriate pieces of trivia that they will ask you before you can successfully get on with your life! All in all, not a fun read, but if you have to read it then do it with patience and a sense of humour.

And if you are wondering...the girl in the story passed her test....

Enjoyed it: Oh no...

Read again: Absolutely not.

275 days remaining - 16 books down, 1 unfinished,  84 left.

Dead Man’s Folly - Agatha Christie

Ah. She did it again. How does she do it? Every time.  I always think I have it and then vzooom, in comes Mrs Christie to call me, indirectly, an idiot. Well played...

I picked a murder mystery to bring me back to my comfort zone after The Hunger Games scarred me. I cannot explain it but there is something incredibly cosy about Poirot mysteries. We are talking about murders and loss of life etc but there is nothing savage about it. Sleuthing can successfully be accomplished with a good cup of tea after all.
It’s actually always tricky finding a Poirot that I haven’t either read or watched so I was very proud of my little discovery of this unspoiled little treasure. Notice here that I said a Poirot rather than any Agatha Christie. That is because very simply, and probably unfairly, I really dislike Miss Marple stories. The plot is there but the pace just reduces me to tears! I have read seven out of the fourteen Miss Marple books and with the exception of Sleeping Murder (that was cool!) it was a snoozefest. The Body in the Library almost killed me! But Hercule Poirot is very special. Five Little Pigs  remains my absolute favourite but there are quite a few contenders like After the Funeral or Mrs McGinty’s Dead. Dead Man’s Folly is not up there but it did very well!

I really thought I had it. Honestly. I was just about to email my application for Head of Sleuthing at Scotland Yard when that twist came along. How did she come up with things like that? I always thought if Agatha Christie decided to murder anyone it would be a really clever plan and no one would be any wiser afterwards. Maybe she did actually murder people right left and center... What an unpleasant thought...


Enjoyed it: Very much

Read again: No. I never re-read murder mysteries...

304 days remaining – 15 books down, 1 unfinished,  85 left.

Catching Fire/ Mockinjay - Suzanne Collins

(This is going to be a two-in-one review as I read both books one after the other and the story line is continuous between them. So you’ve been warned...)

After the nightmare that was Blindness (I’m sticking to my story, even though it is officially considered a masterpiece- I hated it.) I wanted something I knew I would enjoy, something to cheer me up. So I chose The Hunger Games sequels. Because I’m a moron. What person in their right mind would pick post apocalyptic/Orwellian novels to cheer themselves up? I hear you say. And how right you are.

The thing with The Hunger Games books is that they haunt you. After you’ve read them you can’t just close the book and get on with your life. It stays with you.It’s been weeks since I finished the first book and I find myself still thinking through situations. What would I have done if I were in her shoes. Who would I believe. How would I go on about it. But I’m getting ahead of myself. The second and third books (Catching Fire and Mockinjay) are about ten times as powerful as the first one. Mockinjay in particular, where war is described in all its horror and glorious HD feels almost claustrophobic.

What I truly admire in the sequels is the fact that war is not made to look elegant or heroic or justified. War is nasty. People are horrible and there are no clear cut good guys. It’s not like Star Wars where the Rebels can do no wrong and the Empire is the source of all evil. It’s not even as subtle as Harry Potter. It is gory, unfair and confusing. That makes it feel real.

It’s very difficult to write this review without giving anything away. Not that I necessarily think people would want to read the books I review but if anyone does I would hate to ruin it for you. It will be like the person who halfway through Seven told me what happened in the end. I still hate that guy. What is tricky about The Hunger Games is that as already mentioned, it’s all about war. And since I do not want give away who made it out of the Arena of the first book alive even mentioning names is a spoiler. A heartbreaking spoiler mind you as some of the names remain hilarious. But it’s ok, we have more ridiculous names to make up for the ones I can’t mention. A guy is called Beetee. Beetee. As in BT. Seriously. Painful.

Aside from their silly names, the characters are perfectly portrayed. None of them is 100% good and has a halo when (s)he walks. you can imagine them as real people, making mistakes, changing their minds, being scared, being cruel. They are human. And that makes their moments of bravery exceptionally admirable. As an example, I don’t admire Harry Potter for doing the right thing as much as, say,  Dumbledore (who’s background is way more complex than presented in the movies)or even Ron who keeps changing his mind. I admire many characters in The Hunger Games because they do what they think is right especially when the answer is not obvious. I often felt that in their shoes, I really wouldn’t stand a chance. What is interesting is that even though I kept trying to put myself in their shoes it is a pointless exercise because they all grew up in a very different world to mine.

The most unexpected part in the books was the fact that some parts are actually written with humour and you really couldn’t help but laugh. I know I felt guilty when I laughed but some of the exchanges between characters are so humorous in a very subtle way that it was unavoidable. I’m not saying it cracked me up, because it didn’t, it’s just that perfect balance between irony and sarcasm.

Apparently there’s going to be a movie made out of the first book. So I’m assuming the other two books will be adapted as well. Some actors will really have some very big shoes to fill. I just hope they get it right.

And finally, I need to own up to the criticism in the first book about the love triangle that seemed forced and pointless. I take it all back. I am, after all, a moron.

Now I really need something lighthearted...

Enjoyed it: It was excellent.

Read again: When I recover from the devastating effects Mockinjay had to my psyche, sure!

311 days remaining – 14 books down, 1 unfinished,  86 left.